OUR MISSION

To educate scholars of, and contributors to, a sustainable world, through an interdisciplinary curriculum that emphasizes entrepreneurial thinking and environmental, social, and economic sustainability.

Maggie Burns

Major: Psychology

Class of: 2014

“While at SNC I worked harder than I ever had before. Now that I am a graduate student I know I can tackle any challenge I am faced with because chances are, I tackled harder challenges as an undergraduate.”

What are you doing now? (Summer, 2017)

I’m about to start my second year of graduate school at Saint Mary’s College. I will earn an MA in Counseling with an emphasis in school counseling, and a PPS (Pupil Personnel Services) credential for counseling K – 12. I am also working as a substitute teacher while I’m getting my degree.

What “hands-on” learning experiences were part of your education at SNC?

I did two research projects at SNC. I presented my senior project, “Cosmetics Use Among Teachers is Irrelevant When Considering Student Retention,” at the APS (Association for Psychological Science) in San Francisco. It was published in the Undergraduate Research Journal for the Human Sciences (URJHS).

I also did a research project in my junior year which was a joint effort with the Business department and funded by an SNC Internal Grant. The research looked at ways to encourage student involvement in undergraduate internships. The research was done by business student Jaime Aitkenhead and me with Psychology Professor Christina Frederick and Business Professor Shannon Huddy. Our paper, “Undergraduate Internship Expectations: Strategic Encouragement of Student Involvement”, was published in Student Pulse (now known as Inquiries Journal).

How did your experience at SNC prepare you for your future?

In addition to my classes and research, I also interned in the psychology department for 2 years. I was a teaching assistant; I helped students with their psychology coursework; I was a research mentor to students taking Research Methods and Experimental Psychology; I helped with student advising and graduate school planning. I was also a mentor in the Strategies for College Success class. It was helping Dr. Frederick with student advising that got me interested in school counseling, particularly college prep and planning for high school students.

I fully believe the psychology faculty is the reason I’ve done so well post-college. They made sure I was 100% prepared for whatever life was going to throw my way after college.